This invention relates to satellite ground station antenna deployment in connection with any star topology, wherein the gateway (or hub) is subject to significant losses due to atmospheric conditions (e.g., rain) or is in need of high or very high link availability (where link availability can be defined at all possible data rates/modulations/coding combinations. However, for purposes of this discussion one can assign an overall availability that is tied to the lowest acceptable data rate combination).
Maintaining gateway link availability at a suitably high-level for transmission and reception in the higher satellite frequency bands, such as Ka-band, is challenging, especially where detrimental atmospheric conditions exist, such as in high rain-rate regions. A traditional approach is to provide a second, geographically separated gateway to serve as a diversity site for use when the primary site is unusable due to a rain (or other interfering) event. Another approach is to provide a single gateway with a very large link margin, specifically enough to maintain the link availability across expected rain events. However, this large link margin approach can be impractical for many areas of the world at Ka-band and other higher satellite frequency bands. For applications requiring the maintenance of a given data rate to all users at all times, only limited types of approaches are useable. However, for data-centric services where many users are supported with user-addressed data, it is possible to consider scenarios where the data rate emanating from the gateway can be reduced in the event of the rain fade, without a significant apparent reduction in service to the users. What is needed is a method and system for improving the robustness of satellite communication channels at a low cost without unduly slowing communications.